Marshmallows & the art of prototyping

I just tripped over this TED talk on creativity, problem solving and the role of prototyping in design, whether that's designing structures, social experiences, games or products. It's a point that was underlined well in a very interesting book I read recently from the IDEO guys: The Ten Faces of Innovation.

Worth a few minutes of your time.

Digital Treasure Ahoy! Utterly mad but fabulous Twitter visualisation mash up

Thanks to my friend Mark, I've just found this wonderful, hilarious, Twitter visualisation experience from some crazily creative dude in Japan. LOVING it.

A musically accompanied parade of people you follow or who follow you and their Tweets! It takes a while to load, and after a while the backing track gets a tad annoying but have a play with either your Twitter handle or a keyword. Digital treasure. Delight!

And there was me only earlier today having a debate with someone over original innovation v creative mashing! Scraping Twitter isn't new, but as Hollywood script writer and storytelling guru Robert McKee once told me, there are only 7 stories in the movies, just a million different ways to tell them. ;-)

Brand Managers: Take a step back!

I was a brand manager once. Admittedly a long time ago now. I was very passionate about my brands.  So I understand that it's hard to have real perspective when you are so close to something day in, day out.

 That's why you need to have agency partners and advisors that challenge you and aren't just yes-men. It's why you need to listen, and think beyond your brand bubble once in a while. Go crazy, think about a category perspective, think about where that category fits in the WHOLE busy life of the people who buy your products. It will help your approach to comms, search, your business overall and hopefully avoid creative clangers like this one.

I am sure the brand manager signed off this poster creative with a thought along the lines of "wow, my products look great in that ad".  Just as well I knew that GHD make hair straighteners as had I seen this poster at a tube station not a million miles from some of the more colourful parts of Soho, and not known that, I might have thought they were advertising something entirely different.  I'll leave that open to your own interpretation.

Ok, I admit I might be being a touch harsh, it was part of a tunnel takeover and there were multiple executions, most of which did feature head/hairshots but....

Creative Clangers & Election Day creative fun

I spotted this clanger last week - a print ad that ran without anyone noticing that the Terms & Conditions placeholder text hadn't been updated with the final copy and was left as Lorem Ipsum. Oooops. (Click on the image to enlarge).

That said, nowhere near as bad as this Daily Express example my friend Trevor flagged up. Eeek.

Today is UK general election day, & The Sun (UK tabloid newspaper) ran a very Obama campaign-esque image on it's front page

It has prompted a heap of parodies.... check this out.

Then take a step back and remind yourself that people will participate and play with creative if the idea is powerful or engaging enough.

My quote of the day (so far) came from a Comscore (digital industry measurement company) newsletter:

"What are you telling the consumer? How are you saying it? comScore ARS, the newest member of the comScore family, finds that the creative execution is four times as important as media vehicle selection in driving the success of an advertising campaign. You can’t save bad advertising with good media."  :-)


UPDATE: Here's a link to Comscore's piece that backs up that creative point with propensity to purchase

Budget Airline Digital Gold

Most of us have had the dubious pleasure of a budget airline flight at some point and the budget customer service that comes with the experience. Most people in the UK will at some point have watched legendary stalwart of BBC Sunday evening scheduling "Last of the Summer Wine".

Put the two together & you get something like this. 

A Friday Creative Delight ...

Having worked in TV, and in particular animation, I am always a sucker for good stories, well designed and animated.

Enjoy (6 mins)

Thought for the day...

Digital treasure this morning comes via my friend Mark who flagged this lovely Learn Something Every Day site.

It's visually appealling and full of random trivia facts, that may be true or not, but it doesn't really matter! I may have to add it to the "just visit for fun" site list as part of my morning routine. Bing, learn something everyday, Artwiculate & Stumble Upon lucky dip (now with video stumble too)....

You are never too old to learn something new.

Rich pickings from the digital treasure trove

BIG digital treasure find courtesy of Google / Ad week conference this week. A veritable banquet of food for thought.

Yes, there's 80+ slides, but it does a great job of a round up of cool, quirky, interesting and inspiring things that have been done via Google, Android, YouTube and API's.

Well worth a look. Then a ponder about what sort of spins and twists you could put on any of those ideas or technologies to make them work for your brand.